


Just A Moment

by pretendimanauthor



Series: requested on tumblr [25]
Category: SHINee
Genre: Other, Sad, astroself pronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-06 01:22:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11590086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pretendimanauthor/pseuds/pretendimanauthor
Summary: ft astroself comet minall jinki can do is waitwarnings: none





	Just A Moment

Jinki has always hated summer.

The air is sticky, weighing you down and clogging your breath, the cicadas’ shrill voices interrupting your every thought, and the  _sky_ …

Jinki shakes his head, exhaling deeply as he trudges along.

He’s walked this path a million times. Summer after summer he navigates winding roads and steep inclines, whizzes past the town’s most distant houses, and abandons his bike once the ground becomes too rocky around that one patch of marigolds, or daisies, or  _whatever_.

Jinki huffs, sliding down the last little hill before he reaches the pond, and plops onto a rock. He dangles his feet over the ledge, his shoes only centimeters above the mirror-like surface. It’s tempting to dip his toe into the water,  _barely_ grazing the surface just to create a ripple, but he knows he shouldn’t. He knows he should wait.

Fireflies and moths dip and dive beneath cattails, eventually leaving Jinki’s line of sight. He keeps his eyes trained on the pond, sighing as his impatience grows, wondering why he puts himself through this every single year, and pretending like he wouldn’t do this every single  _evening_ if he had to.

Suddenly, the world stills. The warm summer breeze no longer rustles trees, crickets pause their nightly song, and Jinki feels the tension in his shoulder ease.

“ _Finally_.”

A droplet of starshine hits the pond, spreads over the surface like oil, and shimmers like white opal before fading away.

Jinki smiles.

The stars twinkle in the pond’s reflection, the water now jostled by their light rain. He can almost see  _something_ soaring into view, but he has to wait a bit longer. He sits on his shaking hands, watching as the pond illuminates for just moments at a time, all of the year’s anticipation climaxing in this instant.

All at once, a blinding white light invades water’s reflection, Jinki’s skin cools, and life feels exhilarating again.

“Minho?”

“ _Jinki_.”

He looks up, heart hammering in his chest as his eyes land on Minho. Astro is grinning with astro’s arms wide open. Astro’s metallic blue coat and long silver hair sway in a nonexistent wind.

“You look  _beautiful_ ,” Jinki breathes, jumping to his feet.

“You say that _every year_ ,” Minho laughs, and floats across the pond to him, wrapping him in a hug. Jinki clings to astro, astro’s chilled skin making him shiver.

“I missed you so much,” he whispers, and breathes in the other’s inexplicably electric scent.

“I missed you, too,” astro sighs, threading fingers through his hair. They hug for a while longer, both unable to articulate their emotions, but well aware of the terrible sadness that shrouds their excitement all too quickly.

Jinki backs away, marvelling at how his entire body glows white for just a moment, and then dims into a faint sparkle.

“Everything happens so quickly…”

“I know,” Minho replies, voice tinged with guilt. Jinki knows it isn’t astro’s fault; astro didn’t  _ask_ to be a comet, just as he didn’t  _ask_ to live on a planet that Minho would only pass by once a year.

“I love you, you know?” Jinki says. He stares up at Minho, memorizing how astro’s eyelashes brush astro’s icy blue cheeks, how astro’s lips edge into a sad smile, how astro’s deep voice resonates through the atmosphere.

“I love you too. There’s nothing more wonderful than you in the entire solar system,” astro smirks, “And  _I_  would know.” Jinki laughs, despite the tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

“I  _wish_ …” He mumbles, afraid to admit what they both already understand.

“I have to go now,” Minho laments, and Jinki gathers astro into another hug. They grip each other so tightly that, for just a moment, it seems like they’ll never have to let go.

“See you soon?” he asks, as if he isn’t painfully aware of exactly how distant their next meeting is.

“See you soon,” Minho nods.

That same blinding white light appears, and astro is gone just as swiftly as astro came. The breeze picks back up, crickets resume their chirping, and his shoulders slump again.

Jinki has always hated summer.


End file.
